1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for detecting a communication abnormality in a multi-type air conditioner, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for detecting a communication abnormality in a multi-type air conditioner, wherein the communication abnormality can be detected by automatically changing an operation mode of the apparatus into a master or slave mode and individually connecting the apparatus to components such as outdoor and indoor units.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a multi-type air conditioner employs a communication manner, wherein peripheral units (indoor unit, wired remote controller, repeater and the like) acting as a slave respond to the call of an outdoor unit acting as a master.
The communication manner employed in the multi-type air conditioner can be realized as 2-wire (half duplex) RS-485 communication wherein the master and slave are set in advance.
A monitoring system is additionally connected to the multi-type air conditioner employing the communication manner to check a temperature sensor, a load state, and an abnormality of the outdoor and indoor units.
However, when the outdoor unit acting as a master is malfunctioning due to open-circuit or short-circuit or when the indoor unit and the like acting as a slave are malfunctioning, a communication abnormality occurs and the monitoring system does not work.
Therefore, conventionally when a communication abnormality occurs, a communication abnormality detection apparatus should be connected to each unit to detect whether there is a communication abnormality in each unit. In this case, since the unit acting a slave does not respond without the call of the unit acting as a master, an operation mode of the communication abnormality detection apparatus should be manually changed into a master or slave mode depending on an operation mode of the connected unit. Further, since the units are disposed separately from each other, the communication abnormality detection apparatus should be moved to check every unit.